Device with rule based offers

ABSTRACT

A decentralized offer management system is described. An appliance may be capable of storing and managing offers related to the appliance without communication with a central server. The appliance may receive and store offer attributes related to offers received from an offer provider computer. When a user utilizes their user device to communicate with the appliance, the appliance may determine offers related to the stored offer attributes that can be provided to the user. In some cases, the offers may be specific to the appliance or specific to the user. The appliance may send an offer to the user device, where the offer may indicate that the user is to perform certain actions to qualify to redeem the offer. The appliance may verify that the user has performed such actions before enabling the offer to be redeemed.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

BACKGROUND

Management of offers can be cumbersome. Physical offers, such as papercoupons, can be easy to misplace. Additionally, a user may forget whenthe offer expires and may unnecessarily hold on to the paper coupon.Further, distribution of such paper offers can hinder the ability ofresource providers to easily update the offers with new conditions.

Electronic offers can also present certain issues. For example, resourceproviders may have to maintain central servers and external databasesthat regulate offers for their various products. In some cases, when thecentral servers and external databases cannot be accessed, due toconnectivity problems or other issues, offers may not be able to beappropriately provided to consumers. This is inefficient and can resultin a loss of potential sales for the resource providers.

While the above-described architectures can be used, a number ofimprovements could be made.

Thus, new and enhanced methods for providing offers are needed.Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems,individually and collectively.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and methods relatedto an appliance that may store and manage offers related to theappliance.

Embodiments of the invention are related to a method that can beperformed by the appliance. The method may comprise receiving, from aserver computer, offer attributes related to an offer associated withthe appliance and storing the offer attributes related to the offer inthe appliance. In some embodiments, the offer attributes stored by theappliance may be digitally signed by the server computer using a privatekey associated with the server computer. The method may further comprisesending the offer to a user device associated with a user. The methodmay further comprise receiving, from the user device, an indication thatthe user accepts the offer. Additionally, the method may compriseinitiating redemption of the offer.

Initiating redemption of the offer may be performed in various ways. Insome embodiments, initiating redemption of the offer may comprisesending a message to the server computer indicating that the userqualifies to redeem the offer. In some embodiments, initiatingredemption of the offer may further comprise prior to sending themessage, digitally signing the message using a private key associatedwith the appliance. The server computer may redeem the offer for theuser. In other embodiments, initiating redemption of the offer maycomprise storing the value of the offer in the appliance for later use.

In some embodiments, the method can further comprise receiving, from theuser device, a request to establish a wireless connection andestablishing a wireless connection with the user device. In some cases,the offer may be sent to the user device over the wireless connection.

In some cases, the offer may have a validity period. In someembodiments, the offer may be valid for a certain time period startingfrom the time at which the request to establish the wireless connectionis received. This may enable the offer to be valid for the certain timeperiod following the time at which the user showed interest in theappliance. In some cases, the offer may comprise a dynamic timer thatindicates the amount of the time remaining of the certain time period.

In some embodiments, the appliance may evaluate rules to determinewhether the appliance can provide the offer to the user and whether theuser can redeem the offer. In some cases, the method can furthercomprise determining that the offer is applicable to the appliance basedon appliance qualification rules, determining that the user qualifies toreceive the offer based on user qualification rules, and determiningthat the user qualifies to redeem the offer based on redemptionqualification rules. In some embodiments, the step of determining thatthe user qualifies to redeem the offer based on redemption qualificationrules may comprise determining an action that is to be taken by the userto qualify the user to redeem the offer and verifying that the userperformed the action.

These and other embodiments of the invention are described in furtherdetail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary block diagram of a system according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary block diagram of offer attributes according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary flow diagram for presentation of an offeraccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flow diagram for redemption of an offeraccording to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary interface for displaying an offer on a userdevice according to embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and methods relatedto an appliance that can store and manage offers. The offers may includegeneric offers, offers specific to the appliance, and offers related toa group of appliances. In some cases, the appliance may be any suitabledevice that comprises a processor, a memory element coupled to theprocessor, and a computer readable medium coupled to the processor. Theappliance may receive offer attributes related to offers associated withthe appliance from an offer provider computer (e.g., manufacturercomputer, resource provider computer, etc.) and store the offerattributes. Offer attributes may include data for variouscharacteristics related to offers and is described in more detailherein. In some embodiments, the offers can be specific to the applianceor specific to the user.

The appliance may further store an offer rules engine that can evaluaterules to determine whether the appliance can provide a certain offer toa particular user. In an exemplary case, the user may show interest inthe appliance by using their user device to send to the appliance arequest to establish a wireless connection. The appliance and the userdevice may then establish the wireless connection. The offer rulesengine may evaluate rules to determine that an offer is applicable tothe appliance and that the user is qualified to receive the offer.Subsequently, the appliance may send the offer to the user device overthe established wireless connection. In some embodiments, there may beconditions that the user is to meet in order to redeem the receivedoffer. In some cases, the conditions may indicate that an action is tobe taken by the user to qualify the user to redeem the offer. Theappliance may verify whether the action has been performed beforeenabling the user to redeem the offer. In some cases, the offer mayenable the user to receive a discount when purchasing the appliance orreceive other rewards.

It is noted that embodiments of the invention can be incorporated withother functionality of appliances in the Internet of Things (IOT) space.Certain appliances may be able to store and retrieve appliance data,including ownership, behavioral, and historical data, across multipleownership transfers. Such appliances may enable a way to securely storedata associated with an appliance. This may be achieved by having datastored by the appliance encrypted and only providing a decryption key toaccess the encrypted data to appropriate entities. For example, theowner of the appliance may have, by controlling which entities maypossess decryption keys for certain data stored by the appliance, theright to access and make available certain data stored in the appliance,to control the appliance, to delegate the right to utilize theappliance, and to transfer the ownership of the appliance to a newowner. In some cases, appliance data stored in the appliance may bestored in an unalterable and sequential manner. Thus, even if a transferof ownership takes place for the appliance, data already stored by theappliance may not be able to be changed by the new owner since the datamay be locked during the change in ownership. Further details of anappliance that can securely store and retrieve data as described abovecan be found in U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 14/967,066,“Device using Secure Storage and Retrieval of Data,” which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

In such appliances that can securely store and retrieve data asdescribed above, information related to offers as described inembodiments of the invention can also be stored by the appliance in asimilarly secure manner. For example, offer attributes received fromoffer provider computers may be stored by the appliance upon permissionof the owner of the appliance. Further, since each offer providercomputer may sign offer attributes that are stored by the appliance, theoffer attributes may be unalterable by other entities once stored by theappliance. Securely storing the offer attributes in the appliance canenable the owner of the appliance to view when and by which entitycertain offer attributes were added to the appliance. Further, theappliance may securely store confirmation that certain offers wereredeemed by an owner of the appliance, such that the current owner ofthe appliance may be able to determine the offers that a past owner ofthe appliance redeemed.

Prior to discussing embodiments of the invention, description of someterms may be helpful in understanding embodiments of the invention.

An “offer” may be a proposal. In some cases, the offer may be a writtenproposal that may be sent electronically to a device. In someembodiments, the offer may comprise a certain value to be provided to auser, where the value may be related to a monetary amount or othercurrency value. For example, the offer may provide the user with adiscount of a certain amount (e.g., “30% off of original price”) or anaddition of a certain number of loyalty points. In other cases, theoffer may not be related to a monetary transactions. For example, theoffer may provide the user with an amount of time or access privileges.In some cases, the offer may further comprise certain conditions thatare to be fulfilled by the user in order for the user to receive thevalue of the offer. In one example, a condition related to the offer maybe that the user is to complete a certain action within a certain timeperiod (e.g., “Purchase item within 30 minutes to get 100 loyaltypoints”).

“Offer attributes” may be data related to characteristics of offers. Insome embodiments, an offer may be associated with multiple offerattributes. Some exemplary offer attributes include data indicating thevalue, currency type, and start and end of the validity period of anoffer. In some cases, an offer attribute may indicate that it is adynamic value. For example, offer attributes may indicate that the valueof an offer and the validity period of an offer may vary in certaincases. The offer attributes may also comprise data related to rules,such as appliance qualification rules, user qualification rules, andredemption qualification rules, associated with conditions related to anoffer. Such rules can help determine whether an offer is to be providedto a certain user, as well as whether the user is able to redeem anoffer. The offer attributes may also include data related to aredemption method compatible with an offer. The offer attributes mayfurther comprise any other data that may be utilized to process anoffer.

An “appliance” may be an object comprising a data processor that cancommunicate with other devices. The appliance may include a memoryelement coupled to the processor, and a computer readable medium coupledto the processor. The computer readable medium may include code that isexecutable by the processor, for implementing methods described herein.An appliance may be capable of communicating over a network with anysuitable computing device. In some embodiments, the appliance may storeoffer attributes related to one or more offers. In some cases, theoffers may be related to the appliance. The appliance may also store anoffer rules engine to evaluate rules that can be utilized to determinewhether an offer is applicable to the appliance, whether an offer can beprovided to a user, and whether the offer can be redeemed by the user.In some cases, the user may accept the offer and choose to utilize thevalue of the offer at a later time. In this case, the appliance mayfurther store the value of the offer for later Use.

In some embodiments, an appliance can be a device that is designed toperform a specific task. For example, an appliance can be a refrigeratorwhere the primary function of the refrigerator is to keep food preservedor a thermostat where the primary function of the thermostat is tocontrol the temperature within a dwelling. In some cases, an appliancemay be a machine that can perform a domestic task. For example, theappliance may be a thermostat, washing machine, a drying machine, amicrowave, a toaster, a blender, a refrigerator, or other device thatmay be found around a residence. However, embodiments are not solimited, as the appliance may also be any other type of suitable devicewith wireless communication capabilities. Other examples of appliancesinclude televisions, certain mobile devices such as wearable devices(e.g., smart watches, fitness bands, jewelry, etc.), and automobileswith remote communication capabilities.

The “offer provider” may be an entity that enables presentation ofoffers. In some embodiments, the offer provider may be a manufacturer, aresource providing entity, or other entity related to an appliance. Theoffer provider may be associated with an offer provider computer, whichmay be a server computer that can generate offer attributes associatedwith offers and send them to an appliance over a communications network.

A “server computer” may typically be a powerful computer or cluster ofcomputers. For example, the server computer can be a large mainframe, aminicomputer cluster, or a group of servers functioning as a unit. Theserver computer may be associated with an entity such as a paymentprocessing network, a merchant, an authentication cloud, an acquirer, oran issuer.

A “resource providing entity” may be an entity that makes resourcesavailable to a user. A resource providing entity may also be known as aresource provider. Examples of resource providing entities includedistributors, merchants, vendors, suppliers, owners, traders, and thelike. In some embodiments, such entities may be a single individual,small groups of individuals, or larger groups of individuals (e.g.,companies). Resource providing entities may be associated with one ormore physical locations (e.g., supermarkets, malls, stores, etc.) andonline platforms (e.g., e-commerce websites, online companies, etc.). Atthe physical locations, the resource providing entity may host an accessdevice. In some embodiments, resource providing entities may makeavailable physical items (e.g., goods, products, appliances, etc.) tothe user. In other embodiments, resource providing entities may makeavailable digital resources (e.g., electronic documents, electronicfiles, etc.) or time (e.g., rental time, use time, etc.) to the user. Inother embodiments, resource providing entities may manage access tocertain resources by the user.

A “computing device” may be any suitable electronic device that canprocess and communicate information to other electronic devices. Thecomputing device may include a processor and a computer readable mediumcoupled to the processor, the computer readable medium comprising code,executable by the processor. The computing device may also each includean external communication interface for communicating with each otherand other entities. A mobile device, a cardholder device, a user device,a consumer device, a server computing device, an appliance, and anycomputer may be exemplary types of computing devices.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary block diagram 100 of a system according toembodiments of the invention. FIG. 1 includes an offer provider computer101, user device 102, and appliance 110, which may all be incommunication with each other by any suitable communications network. Insome cases, user device 102 may comprise one or more applications (notshown) associated with offer provider computer 101, a digital wallet, ora resource providing entity.

Offer provider computer 101 may be a server computer associated with anoffer provider. In some embodiments, the offer provider may be amanufacturer, a resource providing entity, or other entity related toappliance 110. Offer provider computer 101 may comprise a processor, amemory coupled to the processor, and a computer-readable medium coupledto the processor. The computer-readable medium may include code that isexecutable by the processor, for implementing methods described herein.Offer provider computer 101 may comprise a network interface thatenables communication with other devices, such as appliance 101 and userdevice 102. Offer provider computer 101 may enable generation of offerattributes and transmission of offer attributes to appliance 110. Insome cases, offer provider computer 101 may host an application that canbe utilized on user device 102.

In some embodiments, offer provider computer 101 may have the capabilityto encrypt and decrypt information. For example, offer provider computer101 may store a key pair (not shown), such as a public-private key pair,associated with offer provider computer 101 to utilize for encryptionand decryption processes. Offer provider computer 101 may digitally signoffer attributes before sending the offer attributes to appliance 110.This may help to ensure that the offer attributes cannot beinappropriately tampered with after they are stored by appliance 110.

User device 102 may be a computing device operated by a user. Userdevice 102 may be capable of communicating information with otherdevices, such as offer provider computer 101 and appliance 110. Userdevice 102 can include a processor, a memory, input devices, and outputdevices, operatively coupled to the processor. Some non-limitingexamples of user device 102 may include mobile devices (e.g., cellularphones, keychain devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers,notebooks, laptops, notepads, wearable devices (e.g., smart watches,fitness bands, jewelry, etc.), automobiles with remote communicationcapabilities, personal computers, and the like. In some embodiments,user device 102 may store a key pair (not shown), such as apublic-private key pair, associated with user device 102 to utilize forencryption and decryption processes.

In some embodiments, user device 102 may include an application (e.g.,resource providing entity application, wallet application, etc.) storedin a memory or secure element of user device 102. In some cases, theapplication may be a mobile application. In some embodiments, theapplication may display an interface that allows the user to view andaccept an offer.

Appliance 110 may be any suitable computing device that can communicatewith offer provider computer 101 and user device 110. Appliance 110 mayinclude a data processor 111, a network interface 112, a memory element120, and a computer readable medium 130. In some embodiments, appliance110 may store a key pair (not shown), such as a public-private key pair,associated with appliance 110 to utilize for encryption and decryptionprocesses. Appliance 110 may be powered by batteries, by an externalpower source, or both. In some embodiments, data stored by appliance 110may be associated with a timestamp corresponding to the time at whichthe data was stored. In some embodiments, the data may be encrypted byone or more entities (e.g., offer provider computer 101, appliance 110,user device associated with owner of appliance 110, etc.) before beingstored by appliance 110.

Data processor 111 (e.g., microprocessor) may process functions ofappliance 110. Data processor 111 may include hardware within appliance110 that can carry out instructions embodied as code incomputer-readable medium 130. An exemplary processor may be a centralprocessing unit (CPU). As used herein, a processor can include asingle-core processor, a plurality of single-core processors, amulti-core processor, a plurality of multi-core processors, or any othersuitable combination of hardware configured to perform arithmetical,logical, and/or input/output operations of a computing device.

Network interface 112 may be any suitable combination of hardware andsoftware that enables data to be transferred to and from appliance 110.Network interface 112 may enable appliance 110 to communicate data toand from another device (e.g., offer provider computer 101, user device102, etc.). Some examples of network interface 112 may include a modem,a physical network interface (such as an Ethernet card or other NetworkInterface Card (NIC)), a virtual network interface, a communicationsport, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA)slot and card, or the like. The wireless protocols enabled by networkinterface 112 may include Wi-Fi™.

Data transferred via network interface 112 may be in the form of signalswhich may be electrical, electromagnetic, optical, or any other signalcapable of being received by the external communications interface(collectively referred to as “electronic signals” or “electronicmessages”). These electronic messages that may comprise data orinstructions may be provided between network interface 112 and otherdevices via a communications path or channel. As noted above, anysuitable communication path or channel may be used such as, forinstance, a wire or cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellularlink, a radio frequency (RF) link, a WAN or LAN network, the Internet,or any other suitable medium.

Memory element 120 may comprise offer attributes 125A through 125N,where each set of attributes may be associated with a different offer.The numbering of the offer attributes as 125A through 125N is not meantto be limiting and instead shows that memory element 120 may store offerattributes for any suitable number of offers. A description of offerattributes 125A is described below. A similar description may also beapplied to offer attributes 125B through offer attributes 125N.

Offer attributes 125A may be data related to an offer associated withappliance 110. In some embodiments, offer attributes 125A may begenerated by offer provider computer 101 and stored by appliance 110.Offer attributes 125A may include data indicating the value, currencytype, and start and end of the validity period of the offer associatedwith appliance 110. Offer attributes 125A may also comprise data relatedto rules, such as appliance qualification rules, user qualificationrules, and redemption qualification rules, associated with conditionsrelated to the offer. Such rules can help determine whether the offer isapplicable to the appliance, whether the offer is to be provided to acertain user, as well as whether the user can redeem the offer. Offerattributes 125A may further include data related to a redemption methodcompatible with the offer. Further details about the information storedby offer attributes for an offer are described with respect to FIG. 2.

In some embodiments, memory element 120 may comprise redeemed offervalue data 128. Redeemed offer value data 128 may comprise informationrelated to the value of an offer that appliance 110 determines can beredeemed by the user. Appliance 110 may store redeemed offer value data128 for offers that are associated with a redemption method thatinvolves storing the value of an offer in appliance 110 for later use.Redeemed offer value data 128 may comprise coupons, rewards, loyaltypoints, or other value data. In some embodiments, redeemed offer valuedata 128 may store a digital currency amount in a digital currencywallet.

While not shown in FIG. 1, memory element 120 may store any suitableadditional information related to appliance 110. For example, theadditional information may include background information related toappliance 110, such as a description, price, date manufactured,manufacturer name, serial number, product number, an identifier, andother information. In some embodiments, memory element 120 may storeownership information related to appliance 110, such as identificationof the current owner and past owners of appliance 110, and detailsrelated to transfers of ownership of appliance 110.

Computer readable medium 130 may include an offer rules engine 132, anoffer distribution module 134, and a redemption module 136. Othermodules and submodules may also reside on computer readable medium 130.Examples of additional modules may include modules for processing androuting messages, communicating with other devices, data extraction(e.g., for retrieving data from external data sources such as databases)modules, storage modules, encryption modules, and message modificationmodules. Each module in appliance 110 may be combined with any of theadditional modules as appropriate. Each module in appliance 110 maycomprise one or submodules, where each submodule may comprise one ormore functions implemented by code, executable by data processor 111.

Offer rules engine 132 may comprise code that may enable, in conjunctionwith data processor 111, evaluation of rules associated with an offer.As described above, offer attributes for an offer may comprise variousrules, such as appliance qualification rules, user qualification rules,and redemption qualification rules. Upon appliance 110 establishing awireless connection with user device 102, offer rules engine 132 maydetermine, with data processor 111, whether appliance 110 may providecertain offers to the user associated with user device 102 based onconditions indicated in the appliance qualification rules and the userqualification rules.

Offer rules engine 132 may evaluate, with data processor 111, appliancequalification rules to determine whether an offer is applicable toappliance 110. One exemplary type of offer that may be applicable toappliance 110 is an offer that is specific to appliance 110. Anotherexemplary type of offer that may be applicable to appliance 110 is anoffer that relates to a broader group of appliances comprising appliance110. Offer rules engine 132 may determine, with data processor 111,offers that are specific to appliance 110 and offers that are related toa broader group of appliances comprising appliance 110 based oninformation related to appliance 110. Specific examples of offers thatmay be applicable to an appliance, such as appliance 110, are describedin further detail with respect to FIG. 2.

In some embodiments, offer rules engine 132 may determine, with dataprocessor 111, offers that are expired and may indicate their expiredstatus in a suitable manner. For example, offer rules engine 132 mayrecognize whether certain offers are expired by determining whether theend of the validity period of the offer has passed. Offer rules engine132 may flag the expired offers as no longer valid by updating the offerattributes of each of the expired offers to indicate their expiredstatus, or may store information indicating the offers are expiredelsewhere in appliance 110.

Offer rules engine 132 may further evaluate, with data processor 111,user qualification rules to determine whether an offer may be providedto a user. One exemplary type of offer that may be provided to the useris an offer that is specific to the user. Another exemplary type ofoffer that may be provided to the user is an offer that relates to abroader group of users including the user. Offer rules engine 132 maydetermine, with data processor 111, offers that may be provided to theuser based on information related to the user (e.g., user accountidentifiers, user device identifiers, etc.) received from user device102. Specific examples of offers that may be provided to a user aredescribed in further detail with respect to FIG. 2.

After determining an offer that can be provided to the user, offer rulesengine 132 may initiate, with data processor 111, communication of thedetermined offer to another module of appliance 110 for transmission ofthe offers. For example, offer rules engine 132 may send, with dataprocessor 111, an indication of the determined offer to offerdistribution module 134. In some cases, offer rules engine 132 may alsosend, in conjunction with data processor 111, information identifyinguser device 102 to offer distribution module 134 to indicate to whichdevice to send the offer. While an exemplary case in which one offerqualifies to be sent to the user for simplicity, embodiments are not solimited. In some cases, multiple offers may qualify to be sent to theuser.

Offer distribution module 134 may enable, in conjunction with dataprocessor 111, presentation of the offer to the user. Offer distributionmodule 134 may determine, with data processor 111, the device to whichto send the offer, based on information received from offer rules engine132. Offer distribution module 134 may detect, with data processor 111,that user device 102 has established a wireless connection withappliance 110. Offer distribution module 134 may send, in conjunctionwith data processor 111, the offer to user device 102 over the wirelessconnection.

Referring back to offer rules engine 132, offer rules engine 132 mayalso enable, with data processor 111, appliance 110 to determine whetherthe user can redeem the offer sent to user device 102. Offer rulesengine 132 may determine, with data processor 111, whether the user canredeem the offer based on conditions indicated in the redemptionqualification rules.

Offer rules engine 132 may enable, in conjunction with data processor111, evaluation of redemption qualification rules. Evaluation ofredemption qualification rules may help determine whether the userqualifies to redeem the offer based on whether the user fulfills certainconditions associated with redemption of the offer. In some embodiments,determining that the user qualifies to redeem the offer based onredemption qualification rules comprises determining an action that isto be taken by the user to qualify the user to redeem the offer andverifying that the user performed the action. If the user is qualifiedto redeem the offer, offer rules engine 132 may send, with dataprocessor 111, an indication that the offer can be redeemed by the userto redemption module 136.

Redemption module 136 may comprise code that may enable, in conjunctionwith data processor 111, processing related to redemption of the offer.Redemption module 136 may receive, with data processor 111, anindication from offer rules engine 132 that the user is qualified toredeem an offer. Redemption module 136 may then determine, with dataprocessor 111, a redemption method compatible with the offer based onoffer attributes associated with the offer. Subsequently, redemptionmodule 136 may initiate, with data processor 111, redemption based onthe determined redemption method.

There may be several ways in which the offer can be redeemed. In oneexample, the offer may be associated with a redemption method involvingthe offer provider. In this case, redemption module 136 may send, withdata processor 111, a message to offer provider computer 101 to requestredemption of the offer for the user upon determination that the userqualifies to redeem the offer. In another example, the offer may beassociated with a redemption method comprising storing the offer valuein appliance 110 for later use. In this case, redemption module 136 maydetermine, with data processor 111, value data of the offer based onoffer attributes of the offer and may store, in conjunction with dataprocessor 111, the value (e.g., digital currency, loyalty points, etc.)indicated by the value data in appliance 110 as part of redeemed offervalue data 128.

In some embodiments, functionality of appliance 110, such as wirelesscommunication and offer management, may be activated in different ways.In one exemplary case, such functionality may be turned on wheneverappliance 110 is powered by batteries or an external power source. Insome cases, appliance 110 may be powered, but such functionality may notbe turned on until the owner of appliance 110 (e.g., by manufacturerbefore shipping appliance 110, by resource provider before placingappliance 110 for sale, etc.) manually turns on the functionality. Forexample, the owner may enter or send an activation code to appliance110, which may cause appliance 110 to enable the functionality. It isunderstood that such functionality may also be turned off by the ownerof appliance 110 in a similar manner. For example, the owner may enteror send an de-activation code to appliance 110, which may causeappliance 110 to disable the functionality.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary block diagram of offer attributes 200according to embodiments of the invention. Offer attributes 200 maycomprise value data 201, value type data 202, validity period start data203, validity period end data 204, appliance qualification rules data205, user qualification rules data 206, redemption qualification rulesdata 207, redemption method data 208, and discretionary data 209. Insome embodiments, some of the types of data shown in offer attributes200 may not comprise values or may have substitute values (e.g., nullvalue). In some embodiments, offer attributes 200 may be associated withan offer generated by an offer provider computer associated with anoffer provider. Offer attributes 200 may be stored in an appliance.While not shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, in some cases, offer attributes maybe digitally signed by the offer provider computer that generated theoffer attributes before they are stored by the appliance.

The data shown in FIG. 2 is not a complete list of types of data thatmay be stored in offer attributes associated with an offer, but mayserve as a representative sample. Embodiments of the invention do notplace any constraints on offer attributes that may be stored andprocessed by the appliance.

Value data 201 may comprise information indicating a value of the offer.In some embodiments, value data 201 may indicate a monetary amount(e.g., discount of ten dollars), a percentage (e.g., discount of 30% offoriginal price), a rewards amount (e.g., 10 loyalty points), or otherbargains (e.g., “buy one get one free,” etc.). In other embodiments, theoffer may not be related to a financial transaction and value data 201may indicate other values, such as an amount of time (e.g., 60 minutes)or a certain level of access to a resource.

In some embodiments, value data 201 may indicate that the value of theoffer may change over time. For example, value data 201 may indicatethat over time, the value of the offer may decrease. This may provide anincentive for a user too attempt to redeem the offer at an earlier time.

Value type data 202 may comprise information indicating a type of valueassociated with the offer. Value type data 202 may indicate the type ofvalue indicated by value data 201 of the offer. In some embodiments,value type data 202 may indicate a type of currency, such as dollars,digital currency, or loyalty points. In other embodiments, value typedata 202 may indicate that the value type is a unit of time (e.g.,minutes).

Validity period start data 203 and validity period end data 204 maycomprise information indicating the start and end of the time period forwhich the offer is valid, respectively. In some embodiments, validityperiod start data 203 and validity period end data 204 may each comprisea timestamp that indicates a date and time. In other embodiments,validity period start data 203 may indicate that the offer is validstarting at the occurrence of a certain event and validity period enddata 204 may indicate that the offer is valid for a certain time periodfrom validity period start data 203. For example, validity period startdata 203 may be the time at which a user device requests to establish awireless connection with the appliance and validity period end data 204may indicate that the offer is valid for a certain time period (e.g., 30minutes) after the time indicated by validity period start data 203.

Appliance qualification rules data 205 may comprise informationindicating conditions under which the offer may be applicable to anappliance. For example, appliance qualifications rules data 205 mayindicate that the offer is applicable to the appliance if the offer isspecific to the appliance or related to a broader group of appliancescomprising the appliance.

Some exemplary offers specific to the appliance are described below.Offers specific to the appliance may be associated with offer attributesthat are determined based on certain characteristics of the appliance.For example, the appliance may be a “used” machine that was previouslyowned by another user. In some cases, the appliance may be damaged insome way that lowers its value (e.g., dented, discolored, etc.). Basedon these characteristics, an offer specific to the appliance maycomprise a greater discount than that of a generic discount offered bythe offer provider. Such offers may provide a greater incentive for auser to purchase the appliance, despite it having defects or not beingbrand new. Other offers specific to the appliance may exist based onother characteristics of the appliance (e.g., popularity, time onmarket, original price, etc.).

Some exemplary offers related to a broader group of appliancescomprising the appliance are described below. Offers related to abroader group of appliances comprising the appliance may be associatedwith offer attributes that are determined based on commoncharacteristics amongst the broader group of appliances. Exemplarycommon characteristics may include a device type or a manufacturer. Forexample, the appliance may be a washing machine and thus an offerrelated to all washing machines may be applicable to the appliance. Inthis case, the offer may be for receiving a free box of washing powderwith the purchase of the appliance. In another example, the appliancemay be created by a certain manufacturer and thus an offer related toall devices created by the manufacturer may be applicable to theappliance. In this case, the offer may be for receiving a coupon thatcan be utilized with a purchase for another product made by themanufacturer. Other suitable offers may exist based on other commoncharacteristics amongst the broader group of appliances (e.g., validityperiod, original price range, etc.).

In some cases, the broader group of appliances may comprise allappliances associated with a resource provider. For example, a resourceprovider may be having a store-wide sale and thus may be offering adiscount associated with all of the appliances including the appliance.In this case, an offer comprising the discount may be applicable to theappliance.

User qualification rules data 206 may comprise information indicatingconditions under which the offer may be provided to a user. For example,user qualification rules data 206 may indicate that the offer may beprovided to the user if the offer is specific to the user or related toa broader group of users comprising the user.

Some exemplary offers specific to a user are described below. Offersspecific to the user may be associated with offer attributes that aredetermined based on certain characteristics of the user. In one example,a user may have recently purchased a related product that may beutilized with the appliance, such as a drying machine where theappliance is a washing machine. In this case, the user may receive anoffer that may have a larger discount than normal for the appliance toincrease the chances that the user may choose to purchase the appliance.In another example, a user may be a new customer that has not made anypurchases from the resource provider. In this case, the user may receivean offer that may have a larger discount than normal to increase thechances that the user may become a recurring customer.

Some exemplary offers related to a broader group of users including auser are described below. Offers related to a broader group of usersincluding the user may be associated with offer attributes that aredetermined based on common characteristics amongst the users. Exemplarycommon characteristics may include a type of payment device, acceptedcurrency type, or enrollment in membership accounts. For example, theremay be an offer that is meant for users that utilize a payment card ordigital wallet issued by a certain issuer. This may occur if the issuerhas a relationship with the offer provider and would like to provideoffers to their users. In another example, some offers may be meant forusers that are capable of accepting a certain type of currency, such asloyalty points or digital currency. In another example, there may be anoffer that is meant for users that have a membership account with theoffer provider (e.g., resource provider) associated with the appliance.Other suitable offers may exist based on other common characteristicsamongst the broader group of users (e.g., method of payment, returningcustomers, etc.).

It is noted that while there may be offers that are meant for users thathave a membership account, the lack of a membership account does not bara user from receiving all offers associated with a membership account.In some embodiments, the user may receive an offer for receiving loyaltypoints, even if the user does not yet have a membership account toreceive such loyalty points. For example, the user may accept the offerand subsequently, during redemption of the offer, the user may beautomatically signed up for a membership account. Appliance 110 may senda request to generate the membership account to the resource providercomputer, which may then generate the membership account for the userand credit the loyalty points indicated by the offer into the newaccount. This can forgo the need for the user to conduct a process tocreate a new membership account at a separate time, which can becumbersome.

In some embodiments, user qualification rules data 206 may indicatewhether the user qualifies for an offer based on previous offers thatthe user has received from the appliance. For example, the appliance maystore information related to user devices (e.g., user deviceidentifiers) with which the appliance has previously established awireless connection. Thus, the appliance may be able to recognize theuser device associated with the user when it establishes a wirelessconnection with the appliance at another time. In some cases, theappliance may utilize this information to determine the offers that theuser device has previously received and ensure that the user device doesnot receive the previously received offers again. It is understood thatin some cases, the appliance may recognize that the user associated withthe user device already received an offer on a different user device bydetermining that the user devices are running the same user accountassociated with the user. In such cases, the appliance may determinethat the user may not receive the previously received offer despiteutilizing a different user device.

In some embodiments, user qualification rules data 206 may indicatewhether the user qualifies for an offer based on data shared amongstappliances. For example, user qualification rules data 206 may indicatethat a user may not receive a certain offer from an appliance, if theuser has already received the same offer from another appliance.Appliances may share information to other appliances that indicates amapping of offers provided to certain users or user devices. Theappliance may thus utilize this information to determine whether theuser has already received an offer from another appliance and if so,determine that the user does not qualify to receive the offer again.This may prevent users from being able to receive the same offermultiple times by simply using their user device to communicate withdifferent appliances. In other embodiments, the appliances may accessthe mapping of offers provided to certain users or user devices bycommunicating with a database associated with a remote server at whichthe mapping may be stored.

Redemption qualification rules data 207 may comprise informationindicating conditions under which a user may redeem an offer. In somecases, redemption qualification rules data 207 may indicate that theuser is to perform a certain action in order to qualify to redeem theoffer. In some embodiments, redemption qualification rules data 207 mayindicate that the action is to be performed within a certain timeperiod, such as before the time indicated by validity period end data204.

Some exemplary conditions for qualifying to redeem an offer aredescribed. In one example, the action may comprise the user purchasingthe appliance within a certain time period. In some other examples, theaction may comprise purchasing another item with the appliance (e.g.,“buy item A with appliance,” etc.), creating a new membership accountwith the resource provider (e.g., “Sign up for a membership account”),sending a recommendation for the appliance to another user (e.g.,“Recommend appliance to a friend,” etc.), or connecting on social mediasites associated with the resource provider (e.g., “Become our friend onFacebook,” “Like our page,” etc.). Other suitable conditions may beutilized to determine whether the user may redeem the offer. In someembodiments, redemption qualification rules data 207 may indicate thatthe user is to complete multiple actions in order to qualify to redeemthe offer.

Redemption method data 208 may comprise information indicating how theoffer may be redeemed. There may be several ways in which the offer canbe redeemed. In one example, redemption method data 208 may indicatethat the offer may be redeemed by a process involving the offer providercomputer. Redemption method data 208 may indicate that a message may besent to the offer provider computer (e.g., resource provider computer)indicating the user qualifies to redeem the offer. In another example,redemption method data 208 may indicate that the value of the offer isto be stored in the appliance for later use. In some embodiments,redemption method data 208 may also indicate any information that may beutilized to process redemption of the offer.

Discretionary data 209 may comprise any other additional data related tothe offer that may be utilized for processing the offer. In some cases,discretionary data 209 may include information related to the offerprovider computer that generated offer attributes 200, such as an offerprovider identifier, name, or location. In some cases, discretionarydata 209 may include information surrounding generation of attributes200, such as date and time generated.

Referring back to FIG. 1, an exemplary flow diagram related to providingan offer to a user device of a user is shown by steps 1 through 4.Certain steps shown in FIG. 1 are described with respect with to FIG. 3through FIG. 5. The flow diagram includes offer provider computer 101,user device 102, and appliance 110, which may be in communication by anysuitable communications network. It is understood that for any stepsinvolving a decryption process utilizing a public key, the public keymay be obtained through a publicly accessible interface or may bereceived from the entity that conducted the corresponding encryptionprocess (e.g., in a message).

For the exemplary flow diagram, offer provider computer 101 may be aresource provider computer associated with a resource provider forappliance 110. In the exemplary flow, the resource provider may be theowner of appliance 110 and may make available appliance 110 at aphysical location (e.g., store). While a specific example is describedwith respect to FIG. 1, it is understood that a similar flow diagram mayapply to cases in which offer provider computer 101 is associated with adifferent entity. For example, in some cases, offer provider computer101 may be associated with an aggregator (e.g., processing network) thatmay aggregate offers from various entities and make the offers availableto appliance 110.

At step 1, offer provider computer 101 associated with an offer providermay generate and send offer attributes associated with an offer toappliance 110. Subsequently, offer provider computer 101 may store thereceived offer attributes in its memory. In this exemplary case, offerprovider computer 101 may send offer attributes 125B to appliance 110.Appliance 110 may already have stored offer attributes related to otheroffers (e.g., offer attributes 125A, offer attributes 125N, etc.). Asdescribed with respect to FIG. 2, offer attributes may be anyinformation related to the offer.

In some embodiments, offer provider computer 101 may digitally signoffer attributes 125B sent to appliance 110. This may allow appliance110 to verify the validity of the received offer attributes 125B, priorto storing them, by decrypting the signed offer attributes 125B usingthe public key associated with offer provider computer 101. Appliance110 may store the offer attributes if appliance 110 verifies that theoffer attributes are valid.

While an exemplary case in which offer attributes related to a singleoffer are sent to appliance 110 is described for simplicity, embodimentsare not so limited. For example, offer provider computer 101 may sendoffer attributes for multiple offers to appliance 110 in parallel or insequence.

In some embodiments, there may be multiple offer provider computers (notshown) that send offer attributes to appliance 110. In addition to offerprovider computer 101, which may be the resource provider computer,another offer provider computer may be a manufacturer computerassociated with the manufacturer of appliance 110. The manufacturercomputer may send offer attributes generated by the manufacturercomputer to appliance 110. In some cases, the manufacturer computer maysend offer attributes to appliance 110 while in possession of or owningappliance 110. However, manufacturer computer may still send offerattributes to appliance 110 after a transfer of ownership of appliance110 to the resource provider with permission of the resource provider.Accordingly, offer attributes may be pushed to appliance 110 from anysuitable offer provider computers, with permission of the owner ofappliance 110. In some cases, appliance 110 may comprise rulesindicating whether offers received from certain offer provider computersmay be passed on to the user.

At step 2, appliance 110 may send a qualification notice to offerprovider computer 101. The qualification notice may be a messagegenerated by appliance 110 after user device 102 communicates withappliance 110 that includes information indicating whether the offerassociated with the received offer attributes is applicable to appliance110 and is meant to be sent to a certain user. If appliance 110determines that the offer attributes 125B qualify to be provided byappliance 110 to the user, the offer may be sent to user device 102associated with the user at step 3. It is noted that the transmission ofthe qualification notice is optional and thus in some cases, the offermay be sent to user device 102 without the qualification notice beingsent to offer provider computer 101. An exemplary determination processof whether the received offer attributes, offer attributes 125B in thiscase, qualify to be provided by appliance 110 to a user is described inmore detail with respect to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 shows an exemplary flow diagram 300 for presentation of an offeraccording to embodiments of the invention. FIG. 3 includes appliance 110and user device 102 operated by the user. Not all components of and datastored by appliance 110 is shown in FIG. 3 for simplicity.

In this exemplary case, the user may be physically present at theresource provider location at which appliance 110 may reside. Forexample, the resource provider location may be a store at which the usermay be browsing to purchase an appliance. In some embodiments, appliance110 may be displayed such that the user may directly see appliance 110.In this case, appliance 110 may be powered by batteries or plugged in toan external power source to enable functionality, such as wirelesscommunication and offer management, of appliance 110. In otherembodiments, the user may not directly see appliance 110, such as whenappliance 110 is packaged in a box. In this case, appliance 110 may notbe connected to an external power source, but may be powered bybatteries to enable such functionality of appliance 110.

At step 3A, user device 102 may send a request to establish a wirelessconnection with appliance 110. In some embodiments, the request mayindicate that the user has showed interest in appliance 110. In oneexemplary case, the user may utilize user device 102 to scan a NFC tagassociated with appliance 110. This may cause user device 102 to run amobile application that can communicate information to and fromappliance 110. For example, an identifier associated with appliance 110may be sent from appliance 110 to the mobile application, which maycause user device 102 to request communication over a network withappliance 110. A wireless connection may then be established betweenappliance 110 and user device 102. The mobile application may receiveand display information surrounding appliance 110, such as adescription, price, reviews, and other details. Other suitable methodsfor initiating communication with appliance 110 may be utilized, such asscanning a QR code or bar code associated with appliance 110, orentering a product code, product number, or serial number associatedwith appliance 110 into the mobile application.

In some embodiments, information related to the user and user device 102may be sent from user device 102 to appliance 110 upon establishing thewireless connection. In some cases, the information may include any of auser identifier (e.g., a name), a device identifier, a username utilizedwith the mobile application, an account identifier associated with amembership account with the resource provider, and other information.This information may help appliance 110 to determine specific offersthat can be provided to the user.

At step 3B, appliance 110 may evaluate appliance qualification rules foroffer attributes associated with each offer against information relatedto appliance 110. As described above with respect to FIG. 2, appliancequalification rules may comprise information indicating conditions underwhich an offer may be applicable to an appliance. In this exemplary casedepicted in FIG. 3, appliance 110 may determine that offers associatedwith offer attributes 125A and offer attributes 125B are applicable toappliance 110. For example, offer attributes 125A may be related to anoffer specific to appliance 110, while offer attributes 125B may berelated to an offer meant for appliances of the same type as appliance110. The shading of offer attributes 125N indicates that appliance 110determined that the offer associated with offer attributes 125N is notapplicable to appliance 110. In some embodiments, appliance 110 may notstore some offer attributes that are not applicable to appliance 110,which may forgo or reduce processing conducted in step 3B.

At step 3C, appliance 110 may evaluate user qualification rules foroffer attributes associated with each offer against information relatedto the user. As described above with respect to FIG. 2, userqualification rules may comprise information indicating conditions underwhich the offer may be provided to a user. For efficiency, appliance 110may evaluate user qualification rules just for offer attributes relatedto offers that were determined to be applicable to appliance 110 in step3.

In this exemplary case depicted in FIG. 3, appliance 110 may determinethat the offer associated with offer attributes 125B may be provided tothe user. For example, user qualification rules may indicate that theoffer is meant for users that have a membership account with theresource provider. Appliance 110 may determine that since the userassociated with user device 102 has a membership account with theresource provider based on information received from user device 102,the offer associated with offer attributes 125B may be provided to theuser. The shading of offer attributes 125A indicates that appliance 110determined that the offer associated with offer attributes 125A may notbe provided to the user. While not explicitly described with respect tostep 3B and step 3C, appliance 110 may determine that other offerattributes stored by appliance 110 that are not shown in FIG. 3 may notbe provided to the user based on the appliance qualification rules anduser qualification rules.

At step 3D, appliance 110 may send an offer to user device 102. In theexemplary case described with respect to FIG. 3, this offer may berelated to offer attributes 125B, which may be meant for appliances ofthe same type as appliance 110 and for users that have a membershipaccount with the resource provider. Appliance 110 may send the offer touser device 102 over the wireless connection established in step 3A. Insome cases, the offer may be sent to user device 102 as a messagecomprising text that indicates certain offer attributes related to theoffer. In cases in which certain actions are to be taken by the user inorder to qualify to redeem the offer, the actions may be clearlyindicated in the displayed offer. An exemplary display of an offer maybe described with respect to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary interface for displaying an offer on userdevice 102 according to embodiments of the invention. The offer may berelated to offer attributes stored by an appliance, such as offerattributes 125B stored by appliance 110, as described with respect toFIG. 1. User device 102 may display text 510, such as “Purchaseappliance within next 30 minutes and get 10% off.” In some embodiments,text 510 may indicate the value of the offer (e.g., 10% off) and anyconditions related to the offer (e.g., purchase within 30 minutes).

The timer indicator 520 may dynamically display the time remaining forthe time limit associated with the offer. Offer attributes 125B mayindicate that the validity period end date for the offer is 30 minutesfrom the time at which user device 102 requests to establish a wirelessconnection with appliance 110. As shown in FIG. 5, timer 520 may displaythe time remaining in the 30 minute limit (e.g., count down from 30minutes to 0 minutes). In other embodiments, timer indicator 520 maydisplay the time elapsed since the user device 102 received the offer(e.g., count up from 0 minutes to 30 minutes). While one exemplaryformat of timer indicator 520 is shown in FIG. 5, any suitable formatmay be utilized for timer indicator 520 to display time. For example,the timer indicator 520 may further display milliseconds.

The time displayed by timer indicator 520 may be verified in severalways. In one embodiment, appliance 110 may itself comprise an internalclock that can establish the current time and record the amount of timeelapsed. In another embodiment, appliance 110 may periodically requestthe current time from other devices, such as user device 102 or theresource provider computer. In another embodiment, appliance 110 maycommunicate with a remote server computer to periodically request thecurrent time over a network.

Referring back to FIG. 1, at step 4, user device 102 may send a responseto appliance 110 indicating acceptance of the received offer upondetermining that the user accepted the offer. In some cases, user device102 may receive input from the user indicating whether the user acceptsthe offer. For example, the user may click the “Accept Offer” button or“Cancel” button as shown in the interface of FIG. 5, which may cause aninstruction to be sent to user device 102 indicating that the useraccepts or declines the offer, respectively. Any other suitable inputmay be provided by the user to user device 102 to indicate acceptance ofthe offer. For example, the user may activate hardware buttons or inputvoice commands, biometric data, and motion commands to accept the offer.In some embodiments, the user may not need to explicitly accept theoffer in order to redeem the offer, which is described in more detailbelow.

Subsequently, appliance 110 may determine whether the user is qualifiedto redeem the offer. If the user is qualified to redeem the offer,appliance 110 may initiate a redemption process for the offer. Anexemplary determination process of whether the user qualifies to redeemthe offer, as well as the redemption process, is described in moredetail with respect to FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flow diagram 400 for redemption of an offeraccording to embodiments of the invention. FIG. 4 includes user device102 associated with the user, appliance 110, and a resource providercomputer 301 associated with the resource provider. Appliance 110 maystore offer attributes 125B, as described in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3. Certaincomponents of appliance 110 are not shown in FIG. 4 for simplicity. Inthis exemplary case, resource provider computer 301 may also be theoffer provider computer, such as offer provider computer 101 in FIG. 1,and the offer accepted by the user may correspond to the displayed offerin FIG. 5.

Offer attributes 125B may comprise redemption qualification rules data407 and redemption method data 408. Redemption qualification rules data407 may comprise redemption qualification rule 407A through redemptionqualification rule 407M. The numbering of the redemption qualificationrules as 407A through 407M is not meant to be limiting and instead showsthat offer attributes 125B may store any suitable number of redemptionqualification rules. In this exemplary case, the redemptionqualification rules data 407 may comprise a rule that indicates that theuser is to purchase appliance 110 within 30 minutes in order to qualifyfor redemption of the offer (see FIG. 5).

At step 4A, the user may accept the offer received by user device 102.For example, the user may activate a software button (e.g., “Acceptoffer”) displayed by user device 102. In some embodiments, this maycause the mobile application on user device 102 to display instructionsto the user to perform a transaction at a checkout register associatedwith the resource provider, in order to qualify to redeem the offer.

At step 4B, the user may perform an action in order to qualify to redeemthe offer. In this case, the action may be to conduct a transaction withresource provider computer 301 to purchase appliance 110 within 30minutes. The user may go to a point-of-sale terminal at the resourceprovider location at which the user may initiate a transaction topurchase appliance 110. The user may conduct the transaction with userdevice 102 (e.g., by using a payment interface on the mobileapplication).

At step 4C, user device 102 may send redemption qualificationinformation to appliance 110. The redemption qualification informationmay include information that indicates that the user fulfilled theconditions associated with qualifying for redemption of the offer. Forexample, the information may include a confirmation of purchase receivedby user device 102 from resource provider computer 301. In someembodiments, user device 102 may digitally sign the redemptionqualification information with its private key and send the signedredemption qualification information to appliance 110.

At step 4D, appliance 110 may determine whether the user qualifies toredeem the offer based on evaluating the redemption qualification rules.Appliance 110 may determine what action is to be taken by the user toqualify the user to redeem the offer and verify whether the usersuccessfully performed the action. Appliance 110 may determine that theaction to qualify to redeem the offer comprises the user purchasingappliance 110 within 30 minutes, as indicated by the redemptionqualification rules data 407.

If the redemption qualification information is encrypted by user device102 in step 4C, appliance 110 may first decrypt the redemptionqualification information using the public key associated with userdevice 102 to ensure that the redemption qualification information isvalid. Appliance 110 may then verify whether the user performed theaction by analyzing the decrypted redemption qualification informationreceived from user device 102. For example, appliance 110 may determine,based on the redemption qualification information, that the time elapsedbetween the time at which user device 102 and appliance 110 establisheda wireless connection and the time at which the user initiated atransaction to purchase appliance 110 has not exceeded 30 minutes.

At step 4E, upon determining that the user is qualified to redeem theoffer, appliance 110 may initiate a redemption process. The redemptionprocess may be conducted using a method indicated in redemption methoddata 408 of offer attributes 125B. As described above with respect toFIG. 2, redemption method data 408 may comprise information indicatinghow the offer associated with offer attributes 125B may be redeemed.Appliance 110 may determine the redemption method for the offerindicated by redemption method 408. In this exemplary case, redemptionmethod data 408 may indicate that the offer may be redeemed by sending amessage requesting redemption of the offer to the offer providercomputer, which may be resource provider computer 301.

Accordingly, appliance 110 may send resource provider computer 301 themessage comprising the request to redeem the offer for the user. Themessage may comprise information related to the offer, such as the offerattributes for the offer stored by appliance 110 and an indication thatthe user qualifies to redeem the offer. In some embodiments, appliance110 may digitally sign the message with its private key and then sendthe message to resource provider computer 301. Upon receipt of themessage, resource provider computer 301 may decrypt the message usingthe public key of appliance 110 to verify the authenticity of themessage. This can allow resource provider computer 301 to ensure, beforeproceeding with the redemption process, that appliance 110 determinedthat the user qualifies to redeem the offer. Resource provider computer301 may subsequently allow the user to receive the offer associated withthe offer attributes, which may be a 10% discount to be applied to thepurchase of appliance 110.

In some embodiments, the user may receive a prompt by user device 102whether to continue with the redemption process for the offer. If theuser confirms to continue, the redemption process may proceed. If theuser declines to continue, the redemption process may be cancelled.However, the transaction may not be terminated, as the transaction mayproceed to be processed as a normal transaction without applying theoffer. In other embodiments, the redemption of the offer may be proceedwithout providing a prompt to the user.

At step 4F, the offer may be redeemed for the user. For example,resource provider computer 301 may apply the value of the offer to thetransaction for purchasing appliance 110. Consequently, the user mayreceive the 10% discount for their purchase of appliance 110. In somecases, appliance 110 may send a notification indicating successfulredemption of the offer to user device 102. Appliance 110 may also storeinformation indicating that the offer is no longer valid, since theoffer has been redeemed. In some cases, the information may furtherindicate background information related to the redemption process, suchas when, where, and how the offer was redeemed.

In some embodiments, resource provider computer 301 may send informationto be stored by appliance 110 indicating that appliance 110 waspurchased by the user. For example, resource provider computer 301 maysend a signed code to appliance 110 indicating that the user now ownsappliance 110.

While the embodiment above describes 4D and 4E as using separatemessages, embodiments are not so limited. For example, appliance 110 mayinclude information related to the offer in a message sent to resourceprovider computer 301, where the message may include a request to verifywhether the user performed actions to qualify to redeem the offer and toredeem the offer if the user qualifies. Thus, in some cases, uponverification that the user qualifies, resource provider computer 301 mayproceed to redeem the offer for the user without returning aconfirmation to appliance 110 that the user qualifies for redemption.

While the embodiment above describes a redemption method involvingcommunication with the offer provider computer (e.g., resource providercomputer 301), embodiments are not so limited. In another exemplarycase, the user may receive an offer in which the redemption methodcomprises storing the value of the offer in appliance 110 for later usein redeemed offer value data 128, as described with respect to FIG. 1.In this case, after the user qualifies to redeem the offer, the value ofthe offer may be stored in appliance 110 and may be designated for lateruse by the user.

In one exemplary case, the offer may comprise providing a certain amountof loyalty points, such as 10,000 points, to the user's loyalty pointsaccount with the resource provider. The 10,000 loyalty points may bestored by appliance 110 and may be utilized by the user at a later time.For example, following redemption of the offer, the user may ownappliance 110. While utilizing appliance 110 at home, the user mayutilize user device 102 to request appliance 110 to transfer a certainnumber of the loyalty points to their loyalty points account, so thatthey may utilize the points for a transaction.

In another exemplary case, the offer may comprise providing a certainamount of digital currency to the user's digital currency account. Theamount of digital currency may be stored by a digital currency walletstored in appliance 110 and may be utilized by the user at a later time.For example, following redemption of the offer, the user may ownappliance 110. While utilizing appliance 110 at home, the user mayutilize user device 102 to request appliance 110 to transfer a certainamount of the digital currency to their digital currency wallet on userdevice 102, so that they may utilize the digital currency for atransaction.

While an exemplary case in which user device 102 receives one offer fromappliance 110 is described above, embodiments are not so limited. Forexample, appliance 110 may determine that a plurality of offers may beprovided by appliance 110 to the user. In some cases, appliance 110 maysend the plurality of offers to user device 102. In other cases,appliance 110 may select a portion of the plurality of offers and sendthe selected offers to user device 102. Appliance 110 may determinewhether the user qualifies to redeem each of the plurality of offerssent to user device 102 in a method similar to that described above.

While not required, in some embodiments, appliance 110 may determine apriority order of offers. This may enable appliance 110 to prioritizecertain offers to be sent to user device 102 when only a portion of themultiple offers that qualify to be presented by appliance 110 to theuser are sent to user device 102. In some cases, offers that arespecific to appliance 110 may be prioritized over more generic offersassociated with appliance 110. In addition, offers that are specific tothe user may be prioritized over more generic offers associated with theuser. This can allow offers that are more focused on appliance 110 andthe user to be provided to the user. Such offers may be more likely tobe effective in convincing the user to redeem the offers. In some cases,this can result in a greater chance for a transaction associated withthe offer to be completed by the user, which is beneficial to theresource provider.

In some embodiments, appliance 110 may provide offers in a randomizedmanner. For example, amongst the users that qualify to receive a certainoffer, appliance 110 may send the offer to only a portion of thequalified users at random. This may help reduce the predictability ofreceiving certain offers and also reduce the capability for users toattempt to receive and reuse offers beyond their original intent. Inaddition, such randomized distribution of offers may encourage users torespond to an attractive offer, since they know that they may notreceive it again.

While an exemplary case in which the transaction for appliance 110 isconducted at the resource provider location, embodiments are not solimited. For example, the user may conduct the purchase remotely througha website or application associated with the resource provider. In thiscase, the user may utilize user device 102 to request to establish awireless connection by inputting information specific to appliance 110into user device 102. For example, the user may scan a QR code or barcode on a magazine, which may enable user device 102 to receive anidentifier unique to appliance 110. In other cases, the user may input aproduct number or serial number unique to appliance 110 into user device102. User device 102 may then contact appliance 110 with the request andthe wireless connection may be established between appliance 110 anduser device 102.

For such remote transactions, the offer may be configured in such a waythat the user does not explicitly accept the offer (e.g., by pressing an“Accept offer” button). In other words, once the offer is received atuser device 102, the user may proceed to perform the action in order toqualify to redeem the offer. For example, instead of an “Accept offer”button, the displayed offer may comprise a “Buy appliance now” button.The user can activate the “Buy appliance now” button, which can open upa payment interface on user device 102 to enable the transaction to beinitiated.

Subsequently, a similar process for providing and redeeming an offer maybe performed as described above. Some offers may be associated withrules related to whether the transaction is an in-person transaction ora remote transaction. For example, certain offers may be available forusers performing in-person transaction that may not be available forthose performing remote transactions, or vice versa. In some cases,geo-position information associated with the location of user device 102may be utilized to determine whether the user is conducting an in-personor remote transaction.

In other embodiments, the user may receive offers after they havealready purchased appliance 110. In one exemplary case, the user mayhave appliance 110 newly installed at their home after purchasingappliance 110. The user may register as the new owner of appliance 110through the mobile application on their user device 102, which can thenrequest to establish a wireless connection with appliance 110. Appliance110 and user device 102 may then establish the wireless connection andappliance 110 may send an offer to user device 102 over the wirelessconnection. For example, appliance 110 may be a washing machine and theoffer may be a discount for a related item, such as washing powder. Inanother example, the offer may be a discount for a product created bythe same manufacturer as that of the washing machine. If the userqualifies to redeem the offer, the offer may be redeemed as appropriate.During the time that the user owns appliance 110, the user may continueto periodically receive offers from appliance 110.

While offers provided in a financial context are described above,embodiments are not so limited. In some cases, the offers may be relatedto providing a certain amount of time, such as for a time-regulatedrental or use of an appliance. In one exemplary case, appliance 110 maybe a motor vehicle that can store and manage offers related to how longa user may test drive the motor vehicle. The motor vehicle may be in ashowroom associated with a resource provider, where the user may utilizetheir user device 102 to retrieve details associated with the motorvehicle. The motor vehicle may receive information related to the userbased on communications with user device 102 and may determine whetherthe user may qualify for any offers. In one example, the motor vehiclemay determine that the user is qualified to receive an offer to test themotor vehicle over the span of multiple days, rather than for a typicalshorter period of time, such as a couple hours. The user may qualify forthis offer based on the information that the user has a membershipaccount with the resource provider, which may indicate that the user haspreviously purchased a motor vehicle of the same type.

The motor vehicle may then send the offer to user device 102 comprisingsome conditions and then determine whether the user has met theseconditions before allowing the user to redeem the offer. For example,the offer may comprise the condition, “Accept this offer within an hourin order to test the vehicle for two days.” In some cases, the user maythen accept the offer by their user device 102. If the motor vehicledetermines that the user accepted the offer within one hour as indicatedby the conditions associated with the offer, the motor vehicle may thenenable the user to redeem the offer by sending a message to the resourceprovider computer indicating that the user qualifies for the offer. Theresource provider computer may then redeem the offer and initiate theredemption process to enable the user to test the motor vehicle for twodays. For example, the resource provider computer may display themessage received by the motor vehicle and an agent operating theresource provider computer may confirm the testing period offered to theuser.

Embodiments of the invention provide several benefits. While typicalsystems for providing offers may rely on a central server that managesthe offers and provides the offers to users, embodiments of theinvention forgo the need to rely on functionality of a central server.This is because while embodiments of the invention can allow offerattributes to be stored at a central server as backup data, an appliancedoes not have to be connected to the central system in order to providean electronic offer to a user. Once the appliance has stored offerattributes in its system, it can use logic to determine which offersassociated with the offer attributes can be provided to certain usersand send the appropriate offers to user devices over a communicationsnetwork. This is useful as the offer providing capability of theappliance is not limited by the reliability of the central server. Thisis especially useful as the central server may not be reliable due toconnectivity problems, data synchronization issues, or other issues. Insome cases, the issues related to the central server may be exacerbatedby high use of computing resources (e.g., processing power, storage,etc.) for managing the offers, which can cause the whole computer systemrun more inefficiently. Thus, decentralizing the capability of offermanagement to appliances results in a more efficient overall system.

Another advantage provided by embodiments of the invention is thatdetails of an offer and its redemption may remain stored in theappliance. This can provide a useful record for later use by a user,resource provider, or financial institution. For example, the datastored by the appliance may provide the user with contextual informationregarding offers redeemed by past owners. Further, the informationstored by the appliance can also be utilized by the resource providercomputer when the user returns the appliance. Further, the informationstored by the appliance may also serve as a proof of a payment amount bythe user to a financial institution.

Another advantage provided by embodiments of the invention is thatoffers originating from different entities may be managed by theappliance itself. For example, the appliance may receive offerattributes generated by multiple offer provider computers, such as amanufacturer computer associated with the manufacturer of the applianceand a resource provider computer associated with the resource provider(e.g., retailer) of the appliance. The appliance may store the offerattributes received from each offer provider computer and provide themto the user device of the user.

This is convenient for the user, in contrast to typical systems in whichoffers related to multiple entities may be provided to the user indifferent contexts and mediums. For example, in a typical system, theuser may receive an offer originating from the resource provider on awebsite associated with the resource provider, but may receive an offeroriginating from the manufacturer in a user manual pamphlet that isassociated with the appliance. Embodiments of the invention enableoffers originating from different entities to be easily viewed by theuser in one location through their user device. Further, this may reducethe chance that the user is not made aware of an offer that the user isqualified to receive. In some cases, providing more offers relevant tothe user may increase the incentive for the user to complete atransaction for the appliance, which may benefit the resource providerassociated with the appliance.

Additional methods and processes may be included within the abovemethods and may be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art, inlight of the description herein. Further, in some embodiments of thepresent invention, the described methods herein may be combined, mixed,and matched, as one of ordinary skill would recognize.

A computer system may be utilized to implement any of the entities orcomponents described above. Subsystems of the computer system may beinterconnected via a system bus. Additional subsystems may include aprinter, a keyboard, a fixed disk (or other memory comprising computerreadable media), a monitor, which is coupled to a display adapter, andothers. Peripherals and input/output (I/O) devices, which couple to anI/O controller (which can be a processor or other suitable controller),can be connected to the computer system by any number of means known inthe art, such as by a serial port. For example, the serial port orexternal interface can be used to connect the computer apparatus to awide area network such as the Internet, a mouse input device, or ascanner. The interconnection via system bus allows the central processorto communicate with each subsystem and to control the execution ofinstructions from system memory or the fixed disk, as well as theexchange of information between subsystems. The system memory and/or thefixed disk may embody a computer readable medium. In some embodiments,the monitor may be a touch sensitive display screen.

A computer system can include a plurality of the same components orsubsystems, e.g., connected together by external interface or by aninternal interface. In some embodiments, computer systems, subsystem, orapparatuses can communicate over a network. In such instances, onecomputer can be considered a client and another computer a server, whereeach can be part of a same computer system. A client and a server caneach include multiple systems, subsystems, or components.

It should be understood that any of the embodiments of the presentinvention can be implemented in the form of control logic using hardware(e.g. an application specific integrated circuit or field programmablegate array) and/or using computer software with a generally programmableprocessor in a modular or integrated manner. As used herein, a processorincludes a single-core processor, multi-core processor on a sameintegrated chip, or multiple processing units on a single circuit boardor networked. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, aperson of ordinary skill in the art will know and appreciate other waysand/or methods to implement embodiments of the present invention usinghardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the software components or functions described in thisapplication may be implemented as software code to be executed by aprocessor using any suitable computer language such as, for example,Java, C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift, or scripting language such as Perlor Python using, for example, conventional or object-orientedtechniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructionsor commands on a computer readable medium for storage and/ortransmission, suitable media include random access memory (RAM), a readonly memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppydisk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digitalversatile disk), flash memory, and the like. The computer readablemedium may be any combination of such storage or transmission devices.

Such programs may also be encoded and transmitted using carrier signalsadapted for transmission via wired, optical, and/or wireless networksconforming to a variety of protocols, including the Internet. As such, acomputer readable medium according to an embodiment of the presentinvention may be created using a data signal encoded with such programs.Computer readable media encoded with the program code may be packagedwith a compatible device or provided separately from other devices(e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer readable medium mayreside on or within a single computer product (e.g. a hard drive, a CD,or an entire computer system), and may be present on or within differentcomputer products within a system or network. A computer system mayinclude a monitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing anyof the results mentioned herein to a user.

The above description is illustrative and is not restrictive. Manyvariations of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in theart upon review of the disclosure. The scope of the invention should,therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description,but instead should be determined with reference to the pending claimsalong with their full scope or equivalents.

One or more features from any embodiment may be combined with one ormore features of any other embodiment without departing from the scopeof the invention.

A recitation of “a”, “an” or “the” is intended to mean “one or more”unless specifically indicated to the contrary.

All patents, patent applications, publications, and descriptionsmentioned above are herein incorporated by reference in their entiretyfor all purposes. None is admitted to be prior art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A household appliance comprising: a processor; amemory coupled to the processor; and a computer-readable medium coupledto the processor, including code that, when executed by the processor,causes the household appliance to: provide, to a server computerindependent from receiving any information related to a user deviceassociated with a user, information associated with the householdappliance, the household appliance being a device configured to performa domestic task, receive, from the server computer, offer attributesrelated to an offer associated with the household appliance and userqualification rules associated with the offer, the offer beingassociated with the household appliance by virtue of the informationassociated with the appliance being in compliance with one or moreappliance qualification rules, wherein the offer attributes aredigitally signed by the server computer using a private key associatedwith the server computer, wherein the offer is a one-time offer to sellthe household appliance, verify, using a public key associated with theserver computer, the authenticity of the offer attributes and store, inthe memory upon verification, the offer attributes related to the offerin the household appliance and the user qualification rules associatedwith the offer, wherein the offer is stored within the memory comprisinga plurality of offers for future distribution to one or more userdevices, without further communication with the server computer:receive, from the user device associated with a user, a request toestablish a short-range wireless connection, the request initiated uponthe user device being used to scan an identifier of the householdappliance, establish the short-range wireless connection between theuser device associated with the user and the household appliance,receive, by the household appliance from the user device via theestablished wireless connection, information related to the user and theuser device, determine, by the household appliance by applying the userqualification rules associated with the offer to the information relatedto the user and the user device, that the offer should be presented tothe user, transmit, via the wireless connection, the offer to the userdevice associated with the user, receive, from the user device, anindication that the user accepts the offer, generate a messagerequesting redemption of the offer, the message comprising the offerattributes and an indication that the user qualifies to redeem theoffer, and digitally sign the message using a private key associatedwith the household appliance, and initiate redemption of the offer bysending the message requesting redemption of the offer to the servercomputer.
 2. The household appliance of claim 1, wherein the offer isvalid for a certain time period starting from the time at which thewireless connection is established.
 3. The household appliance of claim2, wherein the offer comprises a timer that indicates the amount of thetime remaining of the certain time period.
 4. The household appliance ofclaim 1, wherein the code further causes the household appliance todetermine that the user qualifies to redeem the offer based onredemption qualification rules.
 5. The household appliance of claim 4,wherein determining that the user qualifies to redeem the offer based onredemption qualification rules comprises: determining one or moreconditions to be met in relation to the user to qualify the user toredeem the offer; and verifying that the one or more conditions havebeen met.
 6. The household appliance of claim 1, wherein the offerattributes stored by the household appliance are digitally signed by theserver computer using a private key associated with the server computer.7. The household appliance of claim 1, wherein initiating redemption ofthe offer further comprises: sending a message to the server computerindicating that the user qualifies to redeem the offer, wherein theserver computer redeems the offer for the user.
 8. The householdappliance of claim 7, initiating redemption of the offer furthercomprises: prior to sending the message, digitally signing the messageusing a private key associated with the household appliance.
 9. Thehousehold appliance of claim 1, wherein initiating redemption of theoffer further comprises: storing the value associated with the offer inthe household appliance in association with the user for later use. 10.A method, performed by a household appliance, comprising: providing, toa server computer independent from receiving any information related toa user device associated with a user, information associated with thehousehold appliance, the household appliance being a device configuredto perform a domestic task, receiving, from the server computer, offerattributes related to an offer associated with the household applianceand user qualification rules associated with the offer, the offer beingassociated with the household appliance by virtue of the informationassociated with the household appliance being in compliance with one ormore appliance qualification rules, wherein the offer is a one-timeoffer to sell the household appliance: verifying an authenticity of theoffer attributes and storing, in a memory of the household applianceupon verification, the offer attributes related to the offer in thehousehold appliance and the user qualification rules associated with theoffer, wherein the offer is stored within the memory comprising aplurality of offers for future distribution to one or more user devices;without further communication with the server computer: receiving, fromthe user device associated with a user, a request to establish ashort-range wireless connection, the request initiated upon the userdevice being used to scan an identifier of the household appliance,establishing the short-range wireless connection between the user deviceassociated with the user and the household appliance, receiving, fromthe user device via the established wireless connection, informationrelated to the user and the user device, determining, by applying theuser qualification rules associated with the offer to the informationrelated to the user and the user device, that the offer should bepresented to the user, transmitting, via the wireless connection, theoffer to the user device associated with the user; receiving, from theuser device, an indication that the user accepts the offer, andgenerating a message requesting redemption of the offer, the messagecomprising the offer attributes and an indication that the userqualifies to redeem the offer, the message being digitally signed usinga private key associated with the household appliance; and initiatingredemption of the offer by sending the message requesting redemption ofthe offer to the server computer.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereinthe offer is valid for a certain time period starting from the time atwhich the request to establish the wireless connection is received. 12.The method of claim 11, wherein the offer comprises a timer thatindicates the amount of the time remaining of the certain time period.13. The method of claim 10, further comprising: determining that theuser qualifies to redeem the offer based on redemption qualificationrules.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein determining that the userqualifies to redeem the offer based on redemption qualification rulescomprises: determining an action that is to be taken by the user toqualify the user to redeem the offer, and verifying that the userperformed the action.
 15. The method of claim 10, wherein the offerattributes stored by the household appliance are digitally signed by theserver computer using a private key associated with the server computer.16. The method of claim 10, wherein initiating redemption of the offercomprises: sending a message to the server computer indicating that theuser qualifies to redeem the offer, wherein the server computer redeemsthe offer for the user.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein initiatingredemption of the offer further comprises: prior to sending the message,digitally signing the message using a private key associated with thehousehold appliance.
 18. The method of claim 10, wherein initiatingredemption of the offer further comprises: storing the value associatedwith the offer in the household appliance for later use.
 19. Thehousehold appliance of claim 1, wherein the household appliancecomprises a thermostat, washing machine, a drying machine, a microwave,a toaster, a blender, a refrigerator, or a television.